De materia medica

This is the first modern English translation of Dioscorides’ monumental De Materia Medica, written in the first century of our era. It is based on the Greek text established by Max Wellmann in 1906 - 1914. The medicinal materials whose sources, preparations and uses are described include more than 600 plants, but also animal products and minerals. The identification of plants is based on the most recent scholarship on ancient Graeco-Roman botany. Four extensive indexes (plants, animals, minerals, medical index) offer an easy access to the text. The book will be of interest to classical philologists, to historians of medicine and of science, to ethnobotanists and other anthropologists, and to research pharmacologists who explore ancient and folk medical practices in the search of new chemotherapies.